WASHINGTON COUNTY : Contaminant at office sought by blood tests
Posted on Saturday, June 21, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — Investigators hope blood tests will show what caused 31 people to become ill at the Washington County Health Unit on Thursday.
The samples are being screened for enzymes that would indicate whether an insecticide caused the illness, said Ed Barham, a spokesman for the state Department of Health.
“That would pretty much close the book,” he said.
Barham said that the investigation has ruled out several remote possibilities.
“The first thing that went through everybody’s minds was, ‘Is this terrorism ?’” he said. “We just don’t think so.”
The air, surfaces and materials in the building have been tested, and none has been proven to be the cause, Barham said.
“We may never know why suddenly people got sick,” he said.
Washington County Administrator John Gibson said the unit will remain closed until there’s no question about its safety. That process includes a thorough cleaning by a company trained to handle hazardous materials.
The earliest the unit will be reopened is Wednesday, Gibson said. Investigators found floor stripper, boric acid — which can be used to kill insects — and a pesticide in the building, but none was thought to have been the cause.
Boric acid is benign to humans, Gibson said.
“There’s nothing about boric acid that’s scary, but obviously you don’t want to put it on your plate and eat it,” he said.
Gibson said that no substances have been found that shouldn’t have been used in the building.
Members of the National Guard’s 61 st Civilian Support Team based at Camp Robinson assisted in the investigation Thursday. The team is trained to respond to severe incidents that may involve chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear contaminants.
Capt. Christopher Heathscott of the National Guard said the team found nothing unexpected in the building.
Heathscott said that the best guess as to what caused the illness was the pesticide or floor stripper.
A separate investigation was launched Friday by the pesticide division of the state Plant Board. The division regulates pesticides and companies that use them, such as Rid-A-Pest, which has a contract on the building and treated it Monday.
A receptionist at the firm said Friday that nobody there was available for comment.
Inspector David Blackburn of the Plant Board said that his office is interested in finding out if any pesticides were used improperly. The first step is finding out exactly what and how many pesticides were used in the building.
Blackburn said the Plant Board can penalize the company if it was found to have acted inappropriately.
Lyndall Hamilton, a commercial pest control inspector, said he will file his report on the building by Tuesday. It could take weeks to analyze samples taken from the building, he said. Hamilton said he was not aware of any violations committed by Rid-A-Pest. Employees of the health unit were assigned to other county units, including those in Benton and Sebastian counties, said Rick Johnson, administrator of the Washington County unit. The closure shouldn’t create significant scheduling problems, he said. The department has at least one health unit in each of Arkansas’ 75 counties. “That’s the good part of having a statewide health department,” he said. The health unit’s closure hasn’t impacted the Washington County office of the state Department of Human Services, said administrator Sandra Allen.
To contact this reporter: awallworth@arkansasonline. com
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